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▲ varispeed 14 days ago

> general upkeep on public spaces and services like libraries

This is also a cultural issue. In large cities, people often don't feel as being part of the community and they don't take pride in their surroundings. They put rubbish everywhere, vandalise. There is little done to change that. They see neighbour has nice flowers in the garden? Instead of admiring, they will cut them off.

▲OtherShrezzing 14 days ago | parent | next [-]

>This is also a cultural issue. In large cities, people often don't feel as being part of the community and they don't take pride in their surroundings. They put rubbish everywhere, vandalise. There is little done to change that. They see neighbour has nice flowers in the garden? Instead of admiring, they will cut them off.

I don't think this aligns with the lived-experience of most Britons. The big cities are mostly litter-free areas, and people can have well tended gardens go unmolested by neighbours.

▲varispeed 14 days ago | parent [-]

Not my experience from living in South London. There is rubbish everywhere and I had my front garden vandalised many times.

▲deanc 14 days ago | parent | next [-]

London is not representative of the rest of the UK. It’s about 11% of the population, consisting of numerous councils and boroughs with different demographics and “upkeep”.

▲schnitzelstoat 14 days ago | parent | prev [-]

South London is pretty extreme though. In the towns and smaller cities it's usually not as bad.

▲Cthulhu_ 14 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"In large cities" is very much a sweeping generalisation. What you're describing sounds a lot like it's caused by broken window syndrome; people put rubbish everywhere because there's no good trash collection system (I know in the UK people have to pay for it, so they just dump it in nature instead. Collect it from people's doorsteps for free and fly tipping wouldn't be nearly as big an issue anymore.

Vandalism is a difficult one. But it's likely because the people doing it don't have anything better to do, no hobbies, jobs, families, responsibilities, etc. And also, broken window syndrome.

But then you look at e.g. east or southeast asia and they have things like neat closed off bus stops with heating and you're like, "Why can't we have nice things?". We're stuck with glass booths with a beam for leaning against at best. Glass so that people in there are visible and don't use it as a public toilet, uncomfortable seating so people don't use it as a hang-out or sleeping spot. But the design adapts to a problem, one which the government has little interest in fixing - or which would infringe on people's rights.

▲mattmanser 14 days ago | parent | next [-]

We don't have to pay for it, it's just part of the general council tax [1], so if you're exempt from that, you get free rubbish collections.

We also have free bulky waste collection, so again, we actually already have that. You just have to arrange for it. You are very poorly informed.

There are also free council run recycling centres (previously known as tips), where you can take stuff yourself. Some have a charge for hardcore, that's about it. Businesses cannot use them though and must pay for waste disposal themselves.

Fly tipping is fairly rare in the UK, I saw an armchair fly tipped on a train journey yesterday and it was notable because you rarely see that sort of thing.

There are areas with fly tipping problems, but usually because those people are lazy, not because of cost. And the council will clear it up (at least eventually depending on the area).

We are having a problem with councils struggling to perform their usual role at the moment. Running out of money. Potholes are a hot topic.

This is actually because our councils are mandated to provide care for old people, and the cost has sky rocketed in the last 2 decades, while they've been capped on how much they can raise their tax. So now almost 90% of my council tax gets spent on old person care instead of what most people might think it was for, bins, schools, parks, etc..

[1] It's not worth going into different taxes here, think of it as a state tax instead of a federal tax. In fact the UK government have a large degree of control in that they force the councils to spend most of it on mandated services and can dictate how much the councils are allowed to raise it by

▲philipallstar 14 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> I know in the UK people have to pay for it, so they just dump it in nature instead. Collect it from people's doorsteps for free and fly tipping wouldn't be nearly as big an issue anymore.

This just isn't true. The council takes taxes at pain of going to jail to eventually pay for this service. Saying "make it free and the behaviour will change" is just nonsense. Things can't all be free. People need to make an effort to keep their neighbourhoods nice.

If they don't feel that a neighbourhood is "theirs" - that's more likely to be a problem.

▲pastage 14 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In the cities I have been to this is not my experience, at least in South America and the Nordics. The wear and tear of lots of people means you need to design things differently in well visisted areas, but there a square meter sees more people in a day than you get in a year in small villages.

▲Muromec 14 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Oh, look, the usual dogwhistle of "not throwing pataat op de straat".

▲tiahura 14 days ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

▲sofixa 14 days ago | parent [-]

That's a dumb racist dogwhistle, Marrakesh and Kandy are very homogenous yet quite filthy.

The common denominator is education and poverty, not skin colour or religion or whatever you imagine it to be.

▲0_____0 14 days ago | parent | next [-]

Conversely New Zealand cities ime are extremely clean (kids running around barefoot?) despite having sizable minority populations.

▲Der_Einzige 14 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If you’re trying to make a point against racism, don’t bring up Morocco. It’s a “no go” zone for anyone who pays attention.

▲sofixa 14 days ago | parent [-]

Nonsense. I was there around a year ago, and while I didn't like it (locals were very pushy and scammy with tourists), there is nothing dangerous other than the classic potential theft/getting bitten by a monkey/snake stufd.

▲billy99k 14 days ago | parent | prev [-]

"The common denominator is education and poverty"

Is everyone in Japan wealthy and educated?